"Game On" was Rick Santorum's
first comment after his "surge" was considered successful with a mere 30,000
votes in Ioway. He inadvertently gave the game away by calling it a game--which
is what it is.

Only this game is not just
about politics but about the media. Pseudo events like this are what the media lives for: it provides
something for them to do, and to
feel important while doing it. It creates airtime for endless punditry, and a
spectacle to liven up a dull Iowa winter.

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For Iowans, it's chance to
"participate" in something that sounds important; for media heads it's a news
routine, a ritual. The media, in effect, provides an infomercial posing as real
news.

Yet throughout the weeks of
endless around the clock "coverage," including polling, and analyzing TV ads
there's barely a mention about how the media benefits by creating a phony sense
of excitement while generating revenues from the money spent on the endless ads,
like the $17 million Rick Perry invested in his run to nowhere. (How much do
you think each vote cost.)

Chris Crawford makes some
points picked up on Undernews that were buried, if reported at all.

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1.
Caucuses don't even pick binding convention delegates.
2. The winner's raw vote total would fill one fourth of an NFL stadium.
3. Only 100,000 of the state's 3 million residents participate.
4. Presidents Gephardt, Huckabee, Harkin, Robertson.
5. Saying its worth is "winnowing" the field is like the family dog eating
table scraps.
6. The winner gets maybe six unbound delegates out of more than 1,100 needed
for the nomination.
7. Iowa has five times more hogs than people.

The media analysts who
examined the coverage revealed that it was more about the horse race than any
real debate about issues

The Project on Excellence in
Politics reported, "the news media were most focused on the shifting horse race
that foreshadowed Rick Santorum's strong late showing, according to a PEJ
analysis of the leading themes in the Iowa press narrative".

"This report, which is
based on a sample of more than 11,500 news web sites, found that the horse race
elements--such as strategy, momentum and polls--represented the leading theme
(27%) in the coverage of the volatile Iowa contest. That was followed by
coverage of the candidate's records and issue positions (19%) and then by
attention to the Iowa caucus system itself (16%). Coverage of the concerns and
activities of the Iowa voters trailed well behind, at 6%."

Many media outlets pointed
out the irrelevance of the Iowa circus but they covered it anyway as if it
mattered, thus giving it an importance by its visibility that many of its
gutless analysts acknowledged was a farce, while calling themselves journalists
and hyping it anyway.

Writes media critics Marvin Kitman, "Basically, the format of the event, which
is not even a primary, is comparable to the number of people who showed up at a
Politburo meeting in the old days of limited democracy in the USSR

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Like Leninist democracy, the Iowa Caucus is based on
the principle of democratic centralism, in which smaller groups get together to
elect bigger groups. It's a cross between voting in an actual primary and the
great American tradition of selecting candidates in smoke-filled rooms before a
convention.

Actually, the Iowa Caucus is less democratic than the
Politburo election since it disenfranchises so many eligible voters: people who
work on Tuesday nights; folks who can't afford a baby sitter; those away
fighting our county's battles on foreign shores; people out of town on
business, or afraid of the dark. Whatever reason, only 80,000 or so people will
bother to register their choice."

Now, it's on to New Hampshire
for more of the same with a smaller crew of gamers still standing. Bachman is
gone and Perry is posturing and Gingrich has been "newted' by voter disgust.
Huntsman still has some of his daddy's money to spread around.

News Dissector Danny Schechter is blogger in chief at Mediachannel.Org He is the author of PLUNDER: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books) available at Amazon.com.
See Newsdisssector.org/store.htm.